Merkel: Threats, attacks against Jews in Germany ‘disgrace’

Chancellor calls Auschwitz a ‘warning’ of what people can do to each other

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stands in front of a historic picture of the Auschwitz concentration camp as she gives a speech during the International Auschwitz Committee’s remembrance ceremony in Berlin to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp, on January 26, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/Tobias Schwarz)

BERLIN, Germany — Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday it was a “disgrace” that Jews in Germany faced insults, threats or violence, as she marked 70 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

Merkel joined survivors of the former camp, created by Nazi Germany in southern Poland, for a somber and moving event in the German capital ahead of Tuesday’s anniversary.

Auschwitz is a “warning” of what people can do to each other, Merkel said, adding that the camp — the site of the largest single number of murders committed during World War II — had been an “atrocious departure” in the course of history.

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